Bolder by the day
On Monday, President Duterte will deliver his first State of the Nation Address with some very real numbers to back him. From July 1 to 19, or the first three weeks of his centerpiece campaign against crime and the scourge of illegal drugs, police reports say some 103,375 suspected drug users and pushers have surrendered, about 30,000 of them in Central Luzon alone; nearly 3,000 persons have been arrested; and 194 drug suspects have been killed in purported legitimate operations. ... But the picture will not be complete if the Duterte administration fails to acknowledge the other numbers that his war on crime has spawned: As of Thursday, according to the list compiled by this paper, 331 killings have been recorded since June 30, the President’s assumption to office, and 378 since May 10, when he won the presidency.